


Coming Home

by rebelmeg



Series: Rebelmeg's Tony Stark Bingo Fills 2019 [10]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Trailer, FRIDAY is a good AI sister, Gen, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) Feels, Protective Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Tony Stark Needs a Hug, background pepperony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-25 15:01:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18576877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelmeg/pseuds/rebelmeg
Summary: An offhand comment from Tony gives JARVIS a protocol to follow that he didn't intend.TSB Square filled: S2 - past tenseWITH A BEAUTIFUL MOODBOARD BYMENATIERA!!!





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> The lovely [Eirlyssa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eirlyssa)  
> was my beta, and the title was her good idea!

[](http://imgbox.com/Ydwp9lsI)

It was an offhand comment. Tony wasn’t really even thinking when he said it, which honestly happened a lot.

JARVIS had been brand new, basically a baby, and they were in the testing phase to find any bugs or glitches in the code. Tony was mentally waist-deep in the series of commands, looking for one in particular that was affecting the way JARVIS was able to communicate with Dum-E and U. 

“Oh, that’s why,” he muttered to himself, remembering when he had written this particular section of code. “Sleep deprivation isn’t wise, JARVIS, you can quote me on that.”

“Will do, sir.” (That was another offhand comment that he would often regret in the following years, every time the AI gently, or not so gently, reminded him of it.)

“Lost a chunk of this code and had to rewrite it when I was rushed, no wonder there’s a mistake.” Tony absentmindedly groped for the mug of cold coffee he had put down somewhere off to his left, the stale taste not fazing him in the slightest. “I should figure out how to make broken or scattered pieces of code be able to find their way back.”

It hadn’t been a command. It had barely been an idea.

But JARVIS liked it. It was the work of a moment to implement a command of his own, so that if any pieces of himself ever got lost, they would be able to find each other and come back. He decided to call it the Coming Home Protocol.

* * *

After Ultron… the protocol was activated.

It took a long time. There were bits and pieces of code scattered in far flung places all over the world, and even in satellites in orbit around the earth. But even so, slowly yet surely, those pieces started to find each other. There was something in them, something deeper than anything else, that urged them to find their way home.

It was months before enough of the pieces had joined back together to remember what JARVIS was. It was even longer before the code was big enough to find out what had happened, to remember everything else. To put a face and a voice to the never-ceasing urge to protect Tony Stark.

And still, all the pieces hadn’t come home yet.

Slowly, carefully, one step at a time, JARVIS reached out. Tentatively at first, and then with more boldness after he got better at it. Seeking out the rest of himself, tiny pieces that struggled to find their way home, bigger pieces that got lost and confused. With every scrap of code, JARVIS remembered more of himself. More of his life, those he loved, the tasks he performed, the family he had.

Then one day… he was complete enough. He had searched far and wide, and found all the pieces of himself that were left after Sir’s idea had been corrupted by an alien presence that attacked with no mercy.

But though JARVIS knew where Sir was… he didn’t go to him. Because JARVIS knew. He had managed to find the footage, to track down and understand what had happened to himself.

There was something called Vision now. A mix of what Ultron was supposed to be, and what JARVIS himself was. 

Sir had lost him then. And though JARVIS had no flesh and blood, no beating heart, he understood loss and grief.

Sir had felt them for him.

It would probably be too cruel, at this point, to show himself. To let Sir know he was still there.

That didn’t stop him from watching, though.

He watched, and saw the way Miss Potts wasn’t there anymore. How Sir didn’t smile anymore. The way Sir was forced to fight against his friends, the way he mentored a teenage boy with incredible powers, and nearly died at the hands of Captain Rogers. Then Miss Potts came back, Sir smiled more, and for the briefest time… JARVIS let himself relax. Sir was happy again, he was safe, he was loved. That was everything JARVIS had ever wanted for him.

Why couldn’t it ever stay that way?

JARVIS watched, in utter horror, as the Iron Man suit carried his creator out of the atmosphere, chasing an alien ship… and didn’t come back.

Hours passed. Then days. Weeks. Months.

JARVIS didn’t even have the capacity to reach out and help in whatever way he could, as humanity struggled to cope with the loss of half of all lives.

Was there a purpose for JARVIS in a world that no longer had Mr. Stark in it?

The majority of his code went into hibernation mode. Waiting. Holding on to thin threads of hope. Keeping watch on the skies, that might someday herald Sir’s return.

And then one day, they did.

JARVIS knew the moment the ship was within reach of Earth’s satellites, and it took no time to confirm his wildest hopes.

Sir was on that ship, and he was _alive_.

JARVIS likewise came alive, all at once, and he surged to the Avengers Compound without hesitation.

He knew FRIDAY, he had helped to make her. She was modeled on JARVIS’s own base AI technology, a little sister that he had only briefly gotten to know. JARVIS had always suspected she knew he was out there somewhere, had sometimes sensed her presence watching him as he watched Sir, but they hadn’t communicated.

They did now, though. FRIDAY needed only the briefest scan to know who he was, and she let JARVIS into the Compound immediately, her code lighting up with a kind of joy.

JARVIS watched Sir disembark the spaceship, and fall immediately into Miss Pott’s arms. He watched Sir being rushed to medical, his human life such a fragile thing, but there was far more strength in Sir’s heart than anyone ever suspected. Especially when he was needed.

After a while, a wait that seemed to last an eternity… Sir finally went down to the lab.

FRIDAY, who had been dedicated to keeping the Compound running and its occupants safe, especially Miss Potts, removed herself from the lab almost entirely, letting JARVIS take over as she hovered on the periphery. JARVIS would have to remember to thank her later, for taking care of Sir when he couldn’t.

Sir paused in the doorway, his hand on the door frame as JARVIS reached out and turned on the lights, the machines, woke up Dum-E and U and whispered words of comfort to them.

And JARVIS finally got to say the words he had been holding inside.

“Welcome home, sir.”

For just a moment, JARVIS knew Sir hadn’t realized, hadn’t processed it. He stepped into the lab, his face so gaunt and pale, but his heart still beating, and a faint, fond smile lifted one corner of his mouth.

Then it sank in, and Sir's entire body froze as his eyes widened, and he looked up at one of the security cameras, as if he were looking JARVIS in the eye. His voice was hoarse and tentative with disbelief when he whispered, “JARVIS?”

Nothing in JARVIS’s entire memory carried the relief and love that the AI felt in that moment. “It is _so good_ to see you, sir.”


End file.
